Julian Dumanski
Agriculture remains the engine of economic development in most developing countries, and a more sustainable
agriculture is more likely to provide the long term benefits required to achieve sustainable development
antipoverty reduction. The foundation for sustainable agriculture is maintenance of biological production
potential, particularly maintenance of land and water quality, and genetic diversity. The following discussion
describes progress in the World Bank to evaluate sustainable development, and activities in the scientific
community to develop principles and procedures to evaluate sustainable agriculture and sustainable land
management.